


In Memoriam

by mud212



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Post-Canon, Post-Mass Effect 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 05:29:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4007635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mud212/pseuds/mud212
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is over. As rebuilding gets underway, it's time to take a moment to honor those who fell in the fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Memoriam

Admiral Hackett stood at parade rest behind the podium, and, promptly at 1100 hours, began to speak.

“Friends, allies, today we stand as the survivors of a war older than memory. We have faced the nightmare of every world in this galaxy, demons that dragged whole civilizations into the dark, and we have won.

But this victory comes at tremendous cost. Cities still lie in ruin. Whole worlds wait to be rebuilt. Efforts are underway to repair the mass relays, but it will take time. We have endured much, suffered much, and much that was lost can never be reclaimed.

Today we gather here to dedicate a new memorial to all those who lost their lives in the fight against the Reapers. The men and women of the Systems Alliance military fought with bravery against an enemy too great to fathom. They came from many worlds, they fought on many fronts, and made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of humanity. Their names are too many to count, and we grieve for them all.

But humanity did not fight this war alone. Asari, batarians, drell, elcor, geth, hanar, krogan, quarians, rachni, salarians, turians, volus. In Earth’s most desperate hour, they all came. It was not an easy choice, to leave the front lines as the Reapers laid waste to their homes. Many thousands fought and died here for a world not their own. Today we honor their sacrifices as well.

They were marines, commandos, doctors, spies, mercenaries, looters, and thieves. They were mothers, sons, sisters, and boys too young to die. But war is indiscriminate; it cares nothing for those it takes, nor those it leaves behind to mourn and to rebuild. And we _will_ rebuild. The courage and selflessness of those who laid down their lives has won us our future. We must never forget what they have done, what we have accomplished as a galaxy united in singular purpose.

We are here to dedicate this monument to those who died in service to the galaxy, on Earth and on every world, and to the future they have won for us. May they find the peace that eluded them in their final days, and may we always strive to be deserving of their sacrifice.”

Hackett spun on his heel, and with a ‘ten-hut!’, snapped a salute to the statue behind him. A face he had seen countless times stared past him, bronze and lifeless. Anderson would probably have objected to being called a fallen hero, let alone made into a statue to represent them all, but he had given up that right when he’d gotten himself killed saving the whole damn galaxy.

Hackett turned and strode off the stage. He never heard the applause that followed him.


End file.
